THIS OR THAT: Craisins vs. Raisins

  ...by request :)

VS

 

So when I started to look into this topic, I found it much harder to navigate and digest than expected.  It appears that different brands of craisins vary slightly in their nutritional information.  This variation predominately occurs because of the varying amount of sugar added to craisins during the manufacturing process.  It appears that on average, bulk craisins have slightly less sugar added.  However, I focused this comparison on Ocean Spray Craisins and SunMaid Raisins, just to standardize the comparison.  BUT, this just goes to show how important it is to look at the nutrition labels of different brands of the same items - despite what advertisments may say!

Anyway, back to the comparison...

The serving sizes of craisins and raisins are 1/3 and 1/4 cup respectively.  In 1/3 cup of craisins there is 130 calories, 26g of sugar (agh!) and 3g of fiber (yes!).  In 1/4 cup of raisins there is 130 calories 29g of sugar (!!!), 2g fiber (yay!), 1 g of protein, 6% of your daily amount of iron, and 2% of your daily calcium.  

So what does this mean...? 

 It means that there really isn't much difference.  If you want to get nit-picky, it seems like nutritionally, raisins may contain slightly more vitamins and minerals.  (Although craisins contain smaller amounts of other ones I didn't list above).  HOWEVER, raisins also contains more sugar.  But then again, they both contain A LOT of sugar.  (To put it in perspective: 29g of sugar is approx 6.2tsp of sugar!) That being said, they do contain antioxidants and fiber.  So they can be incorporated into a healthy diet, but  just be careful not to eat straight out of the bag...this can be super dangerous when you realize that the serving size is about one handful! 

VERDICT:  It's a toss up.  Pick whichever one you want! 

(and maybe hope that you have particularly small hands so you don't reach the serving size as quickly!)

   

Have Your Dessert and Feel Good About It Too!

My First Recipe!!!

I’ve been reading a lot about different ways to use beans in desserts to make them healthier.  It’s also all over Pintrest.  So I combined a couple of different recipes that I found and came up with this one!  Because it uses chickpeas, it’s very high in protein.  It’s also low in added sugar, for a cookie/brownie.  According to my roomates (aka. guinea pigs) these bites are yummy AND they had no idea there were chickpeas in it.  SUCCESS!! I hope you find it to be good too.

Chocolate Chip Blondie Bites

(makes 12 bites)

▪   1 1/2 cups chickpeas or white beans (1 can, drained and rinsed) (250g after draining)

▪   3/4 tsp baking powder

▪   1/8 tsp baking soda

▪   level 1/4 tsp salt

▪   1/3 cup brown sugar (depending on how sweet you like things)

▪   2 tsp vanilla extract

▪   1/4 cup ground flax or quick oats (20g)

▪   1/4 cup peanut butter (or other fat source) (see nutrition link below, for lower-cal options)

▪   1 medium banana

▪   1/2 cup chocolate chips

If you have a food processor, this would be a great way to mix this all together.  But if you’re like me and don’t then just add everything (but the chocolate chips) to a large mixing bowl and use a hand mixer and/or a potato masher to mix everything up until it is mostly smooth.  If you cant get those last little bits of chickpea smooth, it’s ok, but it’ll taste better if you can!

Mix in the chocolate chips.  Spoon batter into a greased (I used PAM) muffin tin and fill each about ¾ of the way full.

Bake for about 30 minutes. They’ll look a little undercooked when you take them out, but they firm up as they cool, and you don’t want them to get hard.

ENJOY!

THIS OR THAT

Even as someone very interested in health and nutrition, I still have a hard time conceptualizing calories and evaluating the “healthiness” of certain foods when I’m eating out.  As a general rule I believe it’s best not to obsess over calories. It ok to be lienient sometimes, especially when eating out (as long as its occasional), but sometimes the nutritional information is SHOCKING and down-right absurd!

So to help put things in perspective and perhaps help you choose smarter when eating out I’ve decided to start a weekly “THIS OR THAT”.  Note that I'm not suggesting that either of these are "healthy", but consider this to be more of a guide to help you choose the lesser of two "evils"!

So for this week’s “THIS OR THAT”...

  Dunkin Donuts Glazed Donut

VS. 

Dunkin Donuts Coffee Cake Muffin 

WINNER: Dunkin Donuts Glazed Donut!

Surprised? I was too.  Muffins, although scrumptious, can be dangerous calorie wise.  They can be a good breakfast option if made full of fiber or can be comparable to cupcakes if made with enough sugar and butter.  In this case, one Dunkin Donuts Coffeecake Muffin contains 620 calories; 25g fat, 7g saturated; 54g sugar; 93g carbs, while a Dunkin Donuts Glazed Donut contains 220 calories, 9g fat, 12g sugar, 31g carbs, which is not particularly healthy, but also much better than the former option.